Boogiepop Wa Warawanai (Episodes 1-9) Review

This is one of those shows that, after a couple of episodes, I did want to like. It has some interesting ideas and characters, the action is pretty exciting even though the actions scenes are a bit spare, and the animations and art design are pretty solid. The concept behind Boogiepop itself is that Boogiepop is a being summoned forth by the planet to protect it from a crisis. The show quickly begins to fall apart for me after that though.

The major issue with the show is its inability to stop trying to be deep. I do like when an anime has some kind of message it's trying to get across that has a bit more depth. You had classics like Bebop that had something at least a little profound to say nearly every episode, but the key difference here is despite the themes there was first and foremost a story to be told. Boogiepop is so focused on making profound statements and odd concepts like 'I am a possible future of this world' to the point it stops making any real sense. The shows desire to come across as profound quickly begins to overwhelm the actual story and becomes a bit of a pointless mess. And there really hasn't been a point in the entire show it doesn't feel like it's trying to do this, and it ends up feeling entirely artificial. I swear there is more

The other is how little focus we get on any of the characters. I do like that it doesn't really have a character who is the central focus of an arc so far, taking to looking at an incident going on from multiple angles that may not be directly connected, but become connected through the event. It actually does a fantastic job of giving the audience a full picture of the situation without the need for badly presented exposition, but the show tends to spread itself too thin. Nine episodes in and a character who has been involved a little in the first arc and is one of the only characters to continue into this arc is the only one I feel I know much about at all. This is way too long to start to care about any of the characters.

The biggest issue I cannot really get into without spoilers, so if you are still interested in watching Boogiepop despite the previous statements I've made on it this is where you want to stop reading this reviews. Boogiepop has a way of making itself feel entirely pointless, so allow me to go into detail on The Imaginator Arc.

There is a group called the Towa organization, and one of their members, Spooky E, serves as one of the two antagonists of this arc. They are drugging and experimenting on people to try to brainwash people for some reason or another. He is tied closely to four of the other characters in this arc. Then there is The Imaginator, who at first has no connection what so ever to Towa, but is on a quest to change peoples hearts.

To keep it short, when he learns of Towa, he straight up beats Spooky E in order to use the heart of a girl there to try to take away peoples loneliness and suffering, something he believes he can do with his power. Mind you, Spooky E, the guy who caused so much pain and suffering to two of the characters in this show, gets beaten by a guy with no connection to anything going on. No one Spooky E had harmed got any kind of comeuppance and the sole antagonist role shifts over to The Imaginator.

Then at the end BoogiePop finally shows up, she doesn't appear often at all in the show, only about four appearances by this point, saves a kid from getting brainwashed as he tries to make it to where he thinks his girlfriend is, and then Boogiepop just shows up and it's revealed the Imaginators plot was never going to work. He wouldn't be able to use the girls heart to plant a seed in the hearts of everyone else.

This means that, had Boogiepop just not gotten involved, absolutely nothing would have changed in relation to this plot. Imaginator discovered Spooky E on his own and stopped Spooky E on his own. His own plan had no chance of success, so if a few of the protagonists just sat back and did nothing, the outcome would have been exactly the same. But at least it gave the show more opportunities to try to be philosophical.

Boogiepop is a very interesting idea with a fantastic method of telling its own story. The problem is the story itself is weak, it doesn't give it's characters any real time to grow which makes everything about their development feel rushed, the story feels weirdly padded despite the rushed character development, and it just can't stop itself from trying to sound philosophical to the point of absurdity.